With the photo industry still mostly hunkered down, and offices temporarily closed all over the world, ‘business as usual’ is still a distant dream. But we’re not in stasis – cameras and lenses are still being released, and plans are still being put in place for future product development.
Last week DPReview discussed remotely with Kenji Tanaka of Sony, on video chat (with a little help from his ZV1) about the impact of COVID-19 on his business, the growing market for video and the successor to the a7S II.

Here are some of the most interesting news:

The effect of the pandemic on the photo industry: “The entire world is affected by COVID-19. However, there are a lot of positive signs. For example in China, sales at June 18 shopping gala were higher than last year. We experienced strong demand for our premium lines, like the Alpha 7 Mark III and Alpha 7R Mark IV. So China is getting better, but in other areas, the situation is different, obviously. Demand in the market is starting to recover in most regions though, and I’m not worried about demand [for our products] in the long-term.”

Vlogging and live-streaming market in COVID-19 times: “The content creator market is expanding rapidly, and the ZV1 was purpose-built to meet the needs of video creators at all skill levels. With the impact of COVID-19, a lot of people want to record their experiences with video. Demand for this kind of product is increasing, and with the ZV-1 we had an opportunity to meet this need. A lot of people will also enjoy the ZV-1 as a webcam when connecting it to a PC via USB. We will deliver a new Desktop application in July to enable this.”

Successor to the Alpha 7S II: ” I can confirm that a successor to the Alpha 7S II will be coming, later this summer. Right now we’re focused on the launch of the new camera, and it will be a complete redesign of the whole system, including the image sensor. Everything is new. We hope it will meet and exceed the expectations and requests of our customers. I’m very confident that our new model will meet their demands.”

Raw-video on consumer cameras: “We’re aware that there is a certain amount of demand for Raw video. As you know, our customers include a lot of professionals, so we’re working hard to be able to deliver Raw data capture to these people.”

About autofocus technologies: “Increased detection speed and accuracy are what’s being demanded by our users, including professionals. And with demand for video booming, autofocus in movie shooting is very important. Right now we’re dedicated to developing autofocus technology further and further.”

You can read the full interview on DPReview’s website.